New legislation has been introduced in California that would require insurers to provide cover to homes in communities that meet new statewide standards for fire-hardening.
The bill would also authorise the insurance commissioner to require insurers to offer financial incentives for homeowners who undertake work towards making their homes more fire-safe.
Renew California (AB 2367) was introduced by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), Assemblywoman Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara), Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, and United Policyholders.
“Homeowners who have done all the right things, hardening their homes and mitigating for fire danger, are still seeing their insurance cancelled or non-renewed,” Assemblywoman Gonzalez said.
“We can’t allow insurance companies to continue to drop responsible homeowners from San Diego to the Sierras just because they can. Creating the Wildfire Resilience Task Force will bring certainty to consumer homeowners and bring balance back to our insurance markets.”
The bill focuses on insurers that have been writing fewer homeowner policies and sharply increasing non-renewals of homes with wildfire risk across the state – a response to several years of devastating wildfires.
Under AB 2367, new statewide standards for home and community hardening will be created and communities that meet this standard would receive a guaranteed offer or renewal of insurance.
“More Californians are hardening their homes against wildfires but not seeing the results of their hard work when it comes time to obtain or renew insurance,” said Commissioner Lara.
“If you have a fire-hardened home in a fire-hardened community, you should be able to get insurance and keep it. We need insurance companies to renew their commitment to wildfire safety with incentives that will allow Californians to lower risk while stopping the domino effect of unstable real estate markets and a declining local tax base for vital services.”
This law would apply only to existing homes, whose owners are facing an abrupt change in insurance availability related to wildfire risk.
